The present invention generally relates to a facsimile apparatus, and more particularly to a facsimile apparatus which is capable of installing two rolls of recording sheet.
In a conventional facsimile apparatus capable of installing two rolls of first and second recording sheets of different sizes (for example, A4 and B4), a leading edge of the second recording sheet is placed at a prescribed position along a sheet transport path between a platen roller and a feed roller, and a leading edge of the first recording sheet is placed on the platen roller. The platen roller is a place for a recording sheet to wait in a ready state for receiving a call. When two rolls of first and second recording sheets of different sizes are newly installed in the facsimile apparatus of this type, the positions of the leading edges of the recording sheets being placed within the facsimile apparatus and the sizes of the first and second recording sheets are sensed by sheet sensors in sheet transport paths of the facsimile apparatus and the sensed information is stored in a control part of the facsimile apparatus. And, the facsimile apparatus of the type discussed above is usually equipped with an automatic sheet cutter, and when a roll of recording sheet is newly installed the facsimile apparatus performs initialization of the recording sheet of that roll, which includes a cutting of a leading edge of such a recording sheet by the automatic sheet cutter to form a proper cut edge of the recording sheet before operation. The cutting of a leading edge of recording sheet is carried out partially because it is desired that no paper jam occurs in a cutter area and in an ejection area, and a proper top margin of a first page and a suitable recording on paper are set.
However, such a facsimile apparatus in which two rolls of recording sheets of different sheet sizes are installed may often experience a sheet size change especially when either of the two rolls of recording sheet is exchanged or when the sheet size must be used to meet the operating condition of the facsimile apparatus. When the size of recording sheet being placed on the platen roller of the facsimile apparatus differs from that which is specified by an external facsimile terminal when a call is received, it is required for the facsimile apparatus to carry out a sheet size switching from the first sheet size to the second sheet size or vice versa. During the sheet size switching, a telephone line which is connected to the facsimile apparatus is in a "hold" state, which causes a loss or delay of communication time and unnecessarily increases the cost for telephone line use. In addition, in the case of the conventional facsimile, the initialization of the recording sheet is usually performed only when a sheet size change is made. Accordingly, either the first recording sheet or the second recording sheet placed in the facsimile apparatus, whichever is less frequently used, continues to stay at a place amid the sheet transport path between the platen roller and the feed roller without being used for recording, and in most cases for a long duration. Such a recording sheet is likely to be curled at the leading edge as shown in FIG. 7. When such a recording sheet having a curled edge must be used, it is very likely to cause a paper jam to occur at the inlet or outlet of the automatic sheet cutter, and otherwise the recording sheet sticks to the platen roller while it is recorded.